With the continued crisis of police violence against Black people, including the murder of people in mental and/or physical health crisis, it's more clear than ever that we need to be extremely thoughtful about calling the police. In fact, we should do everything we can to keep the police from being called. When someone is having a mental health emergency, the people around … [Read more...]
Aprendiendo a vivir con el deseo de morir
[Advertencia de contenido: Discusión de pensamientos suicidas] Según el Centro para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades, “La depresión está caracterizada como un estado de tristeza y depresión, disminución de interés en actividades que resultaban placenteras, aumento o pérdida de peso... fatiga, culpa inapropiada, dificultad al concentrarse, así como pensamientos … [Read more...]
7 Ways Anxiety Can Affect a Person (That You Might Not Know)
I have dealt with anxiety since I was a teenager. As it is a chronic condition, the severity of it comes and goes. Sometimes I feel fine; the anxiety is quietly humming away in the background and I can carry on as normal. Other times, I feel so unwell that I can’t do much more than get out of bed. It is not unheard of for me to take a day off from work or cancel an … [Read more...]
3 Reasons You Wouldn’t Believe My Ex Abused Me – And Why They All Mean You Should
This article was originally published on EverydayFeminism.com and is republished with permission. (Content Note: This article references partner abuse, include rape.) Here’s the truth: My ex-boyfriend abused me. He treated me worse than anyone outside of our relationship will ever know. Some of you might believe me if I told you. But I’ve heard over and over again the common … [Read more...]
Black Folks Deserve Rest and Relaxation: 10 Acts of Self-Care To Exorcise White Supremacy From Your Black Body
A friend of mine recently asked me to close my eyes and imagine what Black liberation looked/smelled/tasted/sounded like to me. I told her: It smells floral; because I want Black folks to have flower gardens. It tastes like home cook meals; because I want Black people to have the time to cook if that’s what they into. It sounds like babies laughing; because I want Black … [Read more...]
Intergenerational Trauma: Indigenous Resilience in the Face of Abuse
This article was originally published on Residential School Magazine under its original title "Let Me Tell You About Inter-Generational Trauma" and is republished with permission. **Content note: this article contains discussions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and violence as well as suicide.** My grandmother was placed in residential school at the age of 6. For … [Read more...]
Surviving Crisis: How To Make It Through When Everything Falls Apart
As 2012 rolled into 2013, the following three things happened in the span of one and a half months: The girl I thought I’d one day marry very suddenly told me she didn’t want to be with me anymore. I went on anti-anxiety meds, which made me feel like I had the flu, and when I tried to go off them, I ended up in the emergency room. My mother’s breast cancer came back … [Read more...]
Filling Our Cups: 4 Ways People of Color Can Foster Mental Health and Practice Restorative Healing
by Threads of Solidarity: WOC Against Racism Leave a Comment
This article was originally published on Threads of Solidarity: WOC Against Racism and is republished with permission. As strong, as brilliant, as loving, and as powerful as we may be, we weren’t built to be superheroes — we were built to be human. — Threads of Solidarity, “Giving from an empty cup/How not to die” The strong, Black woman. The Asian “model minority.” … [Read more...]
Trauma, Body Memories, and How To Heal Them
Your body, believe it or not, remembers everything. Sounds, smells, touches, tastes. But the memory is not held in your mind, locked somewhere in the recesses of your brain. Instead, it’s held in your body, all the way down at the cellular level. Ever notice how, on a stage full of professional dancers, everyone still moves in their own way? That’s because our cells store … [Read more...]
The Secret Cult of Loneliness
This article was originally published for PowellsBooks.org and is reprinted by permission from the writer. I have the distinct feeling I am not supposed to write this. As if by virtue of my melanin I have been contractually bound to an unspoken creed, the first two rules of Black Woman Fight Club: Rule #1: We do not talk about being lonely. Rule #2: We DO NOT talk about being … [Read more...]
The Highest Highs and Lowest Lows: Living With Borderline Personality Disorder
Content warning: mentions of abuse, suicide and self-harm. [note: For clarity and simplicity, I will refer to those with Borderline Personality Disorder as “borderlines” multiple times in this article. However, the general consensus within the BPD community is that it is inappropriate for those without BPD to refer to us as “borderlines”. It is offensive, dehumanizing and … [Read more...]
Seeing More: Fighting Depression Through Radical Empathy
I used to believe that intense focus and concentration were the best way of being. I would spend hours practicing music, hours meditating, hours focusing on just one little thing. The more the world disappeared around me, the better I was supposed to be. Capitalism and patriarchy train us to work really hard and excel at one skill in order to be worthy and recognized. But … [Read more...]
7 Ways Social Justice Language Can Become Abusive in Intimate Relationships
This article originally appeared in EverydayFeminism.com and is reprinted by permission. "It’s that bone gnawed moment when you realize ‘The Community’ will do nothing to stop him from showing up at your backdoor in the middle of the night with the rifle he bought for the revolution” —Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, “so what the fuck does consciousness mean anyway” There … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Lovingly Support Someone With C-PTSD
This article was originally published by EverydayFeminism.com and is republished with permission. I was watching the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame when I suddenly went into shock. Right from the start, seeing Quasimodo be the recipient of so much gaslighting – being told that the world wasn’t safe, that he would never be accepted or loved, that Frollo had … [Read more...]
10 Señales de lo que el Amor No Es: “Aléjate de la gente que te hace sentir que eres difícil de querer”
Fui educada, enseñada y socializada para creer que el amor es dolor. Que el amor es injusto. Educada como mujer, me enseñaron, me socializaron —me lavaron el cerebro— para creer que el amor significa sacrificio. Que como mujer debo martirizarme. Que como mujer mi valor viene de sacrificarme al mejor postor, incluso si él se empeña en poseerme, incluso si nunca intenta ver más … [Read more...]
“You Are Not Alone”: Uncovering the Dark Secret of Black Women and Sexual Abuse
Rape was not explained to me. No one sat me down and told me what it was. When I was a young girl, I heard a news story about a rape in Central Park—the park my school took us to for physical education and recess, so I paid attention. The victim’s face was slashed during the attack—cut with a broken bottle, I think. So for the longest time, I used to think that being raped … [Read more...]
The Body Is Not an Apology
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